## Metadata - Author: [[Paul Bloom]] - Full Title:: Assistant to the Regional Manager - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/assistant-to-the-regional-manager?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#footnote-2-172370400 - Read date:: [[2026-02-17]] ## Highlights > It’s often said that if all our needs are satisfied, we would suffer from ennui and loss of purpose. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khnyg54wjqpmsyhkxcds2yqk)) > But I think this won’t be a problem with a post-scarcity world. So many of the difficulties we face in life stem from our interactions with other people, and these won’t go away even with infinite material resources. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khnygqkb868zcq0ax6dfaxtj)) > the universal desire to matter, to be of significance. Goldstein defines mattering as > > to be deserving of attention > Wanting to matter is a more respectable ambition, but, again, the problem here is that attention is a scarce resource, yet another positional good. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khnyp886n2yq9rh2y9ga84pa)) > Attempts to create Utopian communities have always struggled with the problem of sex. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khnyrh24fy3ywmnt8cab7hxg)) > I’ve framed this as an issue about sex, but of course it applies more broadly. We fall in love with people who aren’t in love with us; we want to be best friends with people who don’t want to be best friends with us, and maybe don’t even like us. It’s the problem of *mattering* all over again; we want to matter to other people in a certain way, but the savage reality is that they might not feel the same way as we do. [[4]](https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net/p/assistant-to-the-regional-manager/#footnote-4-172370400) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01khnys7ww2axwd0tx79nentr5))